Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry

The fascinating story of psychiatry's origins, demise, and redemption, by the former President of the American Psychiatric Association.

Psychiatry has come a long way since the days of chaining "lunatics" in cold cells and parading them as freakish marvels before a gaping public.

But, as Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, reveals in his extraordinary and eye-opening book, the path to legitimacy for "the black sheep of medicine" has been anything but smooth.

In Shrinks, Dr. Lieberman traces the field from its birth as a mystic pseudo-science through its adolescence as a cult of "shrinks" to its late blooming maturity -- beginning after World War II -- as a science-driven profession that saves lives. With fascinating case studies and portraits of the luminaries of the field - from Sigmund Freud to Eric Kandel -- Shrinks is a gripping and illuminating read, and an urgent call-to- arms to dispel the stigma of mental illnesses by treating them as diseases rather than unfortunate states of mind.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
Published: 01/05/2016
ISBN: 9780316278980
Pages: 352
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.90d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 02/07/2016 pg. 28